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Stanislaus Hitch One: Moving to the Forest

So, after eight, lovely months of working and living in the desert, five of us (Darrin, Tori, Hailee, Rachel, and Kyle) have escaped and sought refuge in the beautiful Stanislaus National Forest. We needed shade. We needed water. We needed signs of life. And, this forest has provided all of those things and more.

After this first hitch of eight, ten hour days, we quickly realized that the diﬃculty of terrain and work was much harder than the desert. We are clearing miles and miles of several fence lines of vegetaion at different sites throughout the forest. So after the fences are cleared, we can safely begin to repair the fences. The reason for all of this work is due to the major, major fire that destroyed millions of acres of forest in the Stanislaus Forest and even touched Yosemite (the forests are right next to each other, and we can’t have Yosemite burnt up). You might know it as the Rim Fire. So, needless to say, many of the fence lines were damaged and there also became a need to remove any hazardous trees that could damage the fences.

Obviously, this was a job only the Desert Restoration Crew could handle.

Hitch 1 brought sweat, weight loss, frustrations, dull chainsaws, complete destruction of manzanita, tears, laughs, unknown smells, ripped clothing and, out of all of that, approximately 3 miles of fence line that was cleared. Not too bad for our first go around. Check back next week for the continuation of this fascinating saga.

The ladies start the day by giving the chainsaw a good ole sharpening.

Look at that sharpening job in action! Hailee is cutting through that manzanita!

Tori giving her best chainsaw pose.

Darrin, no!!!!

Making room to fell that tree. You go girl.

Sharpen, Darrin. Yes. sharpen it real nice.

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The Student Conservation Association (SCA) is America’s conservation corps. Our members protect and restore national parks, marine sanctuaries, cultural landmarks and community green spaces in all 50 states.